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when you got it!” she said. “Hey, I had to make sure you got one. Now
     I won’t have to lend you my board while I teach you how!”
    “How soon can you go boarding?” Dennis asked her.
    “Well, it’s Christmas morning, and we’ve got all the cousins coming over,” she said. “Let me ask my mom.” Dennis waited while
     Tasha consulted with her mother. A few seconds later she got back on. “Good news,” she said. “They’re not getting here till
     five o’clock. My mom says I can go out after lunch, as long as I’m back by five.”
    “Great!” Dennis said. He knew his own family wasn’t entertaining or going anywhere special. His grandparents lived too far
     away, and so did most of his aunts, uncles, and cousins. When they saw each other, it always took an airplane trip.
    “So should we meet at Schoolhouse Hill after lunch?” Tasha asked him.
    “Mmm … no, I don’t want to go there for my first time. Too many kids. I might embarrass myself. Is there anyplace more private
     — that isn’t, you know, too dangerous or anything?”
    “What about the Breakers?” Tasha suggested. The Breakers were a series of rolling hills outside of town. Someone must have
     once thought they looked like waves, and that’s how they’d gotten their name. They had very few trees or rocks, and they weren’t
     too steep — although they were higher than Schoolhouse Hill.
    “Perfect!” Dennis agreed. “But we’ll have to get a lift there.”
    “My parents are going to be too busy preparing for company,” Tasha mused. “What about yours?”
    “Hold on — I’ll ask,” Dennis said, and ran into the living room, holding the cordless phone in his hand. “Mom, Dad, can one
     of you drive me and Tasha to the Breakers this afternoon? It’s only a ten-minute drive.”
    “Ten minutes there, ten minutes back — twice,” his dad pointed out, shaking his head. “Can’t you justgo snowboarding behind the school?” he asked.
    “The Breakers are kind of high, honey,” his mother said. “Are you sure you can handle them?”
    “Don’t worry, Mom — Tasha’s an expert,” Dennis assured her, although Tasha, he knew, had only been boarding for a month. “I’ll
     be super-careful.”
    “Well, I can’t drive you there, either, Dennis,” his mother said. “I’m sorry, but I’m caroling with my women’s group over
     at the Happy Hills Nursing Home. And you know your father — he doesn’t want to miss his football game.” She shook her head,
     frowning at the thought.
    “It’s my two favorite teams, honey!” Mr. O’Malley said, as if that made the game’s importance obvious.
    “Dennis!” Dennis heard Tasha’s voice on the phone, and put it up to his ear.
    “Yeah?” he asked.
    “What about Robbie?” she asked. “We’re going to invite him, aren’t we?”
    “Of course,” Dennis agreed. “Hey, without him, I wouldn’t have a snowboard, would I? He’s probably wondering why I haven’t
     called him yet!”
    “Well, maybe his parents can drive us.”
    “Right!” Dennis said. He covered the phone’s mouthpiece again. “Never mind, Mom and Dad. Thanks, anyway.” To Tasha he said,
     “Gotta hang up and call Robbie, okay?” he said.
    “Call me back after,” Tasha said.
    Robbie was available, all right. He giggled right through Dennis’s explanation of how surprised he was. And boy, was he ever
     excited that Dennis wanted to go boarding that very day. “Radical!” he said. “I’m totally psyched!”
    Robbie talked his mom into driving them to the Breakers, too. Mrs. McIntyre looked exactly like Robbie — short, redheaded,
     with freckles — and she never could resist her son when he wanted something badly enough.
    And so, at two o’clock that afternoon, Mrs. McIntyre pulled up in front of the O’Malley house in her minivan and honked the
     horn. Dennis came barreling out of the house, carrying his board under his arm, and jumped into the car.
    In a bag slung over his shoulder